I am writing this entry on New Year’s Day morning. First and foremost I want to wish you and your loved ones an incredibly happy, healthy and prosperous 2023 with many more great years going forward.
There are many articles written online and print during these next few days that contain “bold predictions” for the upcoming year. These musings span the categories of:
- Sports (what teams/people will win the World Series, Superbowl, NBA title, U.S. Open, Stanley Cup, etc)
- Politics (such as who will start making the headlines for a 2024 Presidential run, what will be the impact of a new House majority, what hearings will take place, etc)
- Business (the chances of a recession occurring, what will happen to mortgage rates
- World events (what will transpire in Ukraine, other significant/dangerous world occurrences
- Health (how impactful future and current Covid waves will be, what news medications may be developed to help fight cancer, heart disease etc)
On the personal side, perhaps many of you (including me) play a sort of “prediction game” with your loved ones. What will this new year bring to you and your family? Will there be any career/job changes? Will there be any new personal relationships or dissolutions of old ones? What type of vacations will be taken? There are many more “predictions” that can be made spanning a bunch of personal categories.
Focusing on health: I am not certain that many people will make predictions for their own health for the upcoming year. One of the major reasons for focusing on other categories is that NO ONE wants to predict bad health events occurring to them or their family members. There are basically two potential health scenarios for the upcoming year: A year of good/decent health when any “problems” are pretty minor, insignificant and not life-altering. The other scenario is a year when a major health issue(s) occurs that indeed is life-changing in a very negative way.
Making predictions come true: There are many arenas of life where we have zero impact on what transpires, such as sports events that we watch, business cycles, world events etc. However, in the health care arena, we can have impact on what occurs going forward. Clearly, shedding the unhealthy weight will help the “good health” predictions come true and in the same line of thinking, not losing the weight will make the “bad health” predictions come true as well.
PLEASE focus on “YOU” i.e. you go in for regular checkups, have the age-recommended screening tests and immunizations and most certainly become steadfast in your weight control efforts. I predict that if you do so, the chances are much better for a “good health” year.
And for those that predict a “Very Good Year”, here is Old Blue Eyes singing about it: